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Follow ARTIST'S RENDITIONS: Former Associate AG Rachel Brand as a Walmart greeter (left) and former Boston Cybercrime Chief Adam Bookbinder as Pee-wee Herman (right). (Photo: AG Management)
I thought the Harvard community felt that large corporations and specifically mega-stores were evil. But on Friday, Associate AG and Harvard alum Rachel Brand abruptly left the DOJ to start what she called her "dream job" -- at Walmart. Hers was the latest high-profile exit from the department following a long line of others including fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, fired FBI Director James Comey, and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
Brand's departure also came at a particular moment in history. You see, given that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had already recused himself from pretty much everything and that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein would now have to be considered a subject of inquiry himself due to the Nunez memo, if Brand hadn't left than it likely would have fallen on her as the #3 in charge at the DOJ to appoint a new special counsel to look into potential malfeasance in the department. And that could have been awkward given that Brand was also Rosenstein's fellow Harvard ally.
So, with no associate AG in place, that task would now likely fall to the #4 in line of succession at the Justice Department, Solicitor General Noel Francisco. And it's likely that he's feeling some pressure, if not from the White House and from Congress, then from the public. At the time of publication, 88% of over 700 respondents to polls on Facebook and Twitter say that Rosenstein, Comey and McCabe should all face a death penalty prosecution for treason brought by a special counsel. (Polls will remain open until Sunday evening.)
But the FISA scandal revealed by the Nunes memo was not the only sticky situation that Brand and her fellow Harvard alums may be avoiding by leaving the DOJ now.
For example, a couple of months ago, federal prosecutors began taking a new look at a complaint filed against Harvard in 2015 over alleged admissions practices that were biased against Asian students. Apparently, that complaint hadn't gotten much consideration during the administration of Harvard Law graduate Barack Obama, who the university is now considering naming to its top post. Back then, Rosenstein was the U.S. attorney for Maryland and Brand was on the DOJ Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, but they were still both Harvard alums.
And the apparent special treatment enjoyed by their ivy league school thanks to its influential alum doesn't end there. For months now I've been calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the medical kidnapping of Justina0 Pelletier by Harvard's Boston Children's Hospital and though the Harvard alum in the DOJ including Rosenstein have refused to budge in that direction, a growing number of exposés have now been published, including this one by Michelle Malkin, this one by Rolling Stone and the following segment from Infowars:
So, with public pressure building, Adam Bookbinder, the Harvard alum who had been immorally prosecuting me for defending Justina's life, quietly quit his DOJ job as the chief of the cybercrime division in Boston and joined the private-sector firm of Holland and Knight LLP.
He did so during the recent news maelstrom in between the state of the union address and the release of the Nunes memo which helped keep his move quiet. His desire for a low-key departure was understandable since our last hearing together and his subsequent formal withdrawal from the case had both been quite loud.
(Holland and Knight did not return a request for comment prior to publication as to whether or not it was aware of Bookbinder's recent past.)
Now, I wonder with all that's coming out, what else may we soon learn about Harvard and its alum (formerly) in the DOJ. And given that Brand is now at Walmart, does Rosenstein know how to work the Frialator?
The author, Marty Gottesfeld is an Obama-era political prisoner. To learn more about his case or donate to support him, please go to FreeMartyG.com.
